Vehicles usually have control devices, which are configured to process complex and large data quantities. In so doing, it can occur that processing the respective data, e.g., performing computing operations on the basis of the respective data, requires a quantity of electricity that, in the case of a vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine, must be laboriously provided by a generator. Since an internal combustion engine is normally used to drive a generator, the computing operations performed by a respective control device ultimately lead to increased fuel consumption by the internal combustion engine of the vehicle in question.
A method emerges from US 2016/0198485 A1 for dividing the computational load of a master vehicle between the master vehicle and a second vehicle that is driving on the same street within communications range of the master vehicle.
A wireless communications system and a server-based method for communications between vehicles is known from DE 10 2007 045 519 A1. By means of unicast and multicast telecommunications, a multitude of effective communications models are provided, which can also be tailored by the evaluation of GPS location information.
DE 10 2009 045 711 A1 discloses a data transmission, power supply and charging device with a data interface that both transmits energy to an energy storage device and transmits driver-specific data via a charging cable or electrical line. The data transmission, power supply and charging device can include a communications unit, which also makes it possible to receive and send data during the journey without an electrical connection.
US 2015/0200810 A1 discloses a mesh network formed from a plurality of vehicles, which are located in spatial vicinity to each other and which communicate with each other wirelessly via radio.